Power Broker Author Robert Caro "Disgusting" Super Tall Building, No One Speaking Out Against Them . . . What Will Happen to NYC?

“You know, these buildings are disgusting,” said “Power Broker” author Robert Caro, looking out from his Columbus Circle office during a recent interview with Gothamist. “No one seems to speak out against them,” he said. “You wonder what New York is going to become.” [Gothamist] * The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York is a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Robert Moses byRobert Caro. The book focuses on the creation and use of power in local and state politics, as witnessed through Moses' use of unelected positions to design and implement dozens of highways and bridges, sometimes at great cost to the communities he nominally served. It has been repeatedly named one of the best biographies of the 20th century, and has been highly influential on city planners and politicians throughout the United States.* 73-Story Tower Would Be Brooklyn’s Tallest by Far (NYT)The building, which would rise beside Junior’s Restaurant on DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, would be almost twice as high as anything around it.

Pete Hamill: On How the Developers Suck the Power Out of the NeighborhoodsHamill: New Yorkers Have Lost A Sense of Themselves As People in Control of Their Lives in This City

TONY GUIDA: Sure. What a lesson. I want to talk a recent piece, very recent piece, in The National Geographic about this city. I mean there's many people talk of you Pete as the poet of New York City. The bard of this city. No one sings the song of New York better than Pete Hamill and so here in the National Geographic you're reflecting on the city and I was a bit taken aback. You said, my beloved New York is in a bad way. How do you mean that? De Blasio says everyone's on board with more affordable housing, but when he tells them more height/density is required to get it, some balk By Closing Churches You Suck Power Out of Communities *De Blasio Eyes Underused Church Property for AffordableHousing (NAINFO)

The Sociology of the Tall Building Replacing the Hang Out Stoops is Changing The Power New Yorkers Got From Their Neighborhoods

PETE HAMILL: I mean that certain things as epitomized by the super tall buildings that are going up everywhere erasing the sky and throwing shadows into our lives. Are more a triumph of money then of architecture. They’re more building refugees for people who don't want to live here. I don't get a sense walking past some of those buildings, there’s a few right here in Tribeca where I live that there are people living in these buildings who are not going to join the Parent Teachers Association. Who are not particularly interested in finding out the name of the guy that sells the newspaper or the butchers last name or the kinds of things that came from neighborhoods because the neighborhood was the kind of series of connected hamlets that made New York so rich particularly if you were a reporter. You know you could go from one block to another and it was a different world and the last two or three years with the explosion of these buildings, the super talls, I just felt that they were losing a sense of themselves as people in control of their lives in this city. That it was being determined by some other standard but not the standard that had shaped me and a whole lot of other people who grew up here.

It wasn't enough for decision-makers to have knowledge of programs and services. "They must understand, and understand thoroughly, specific places," Jacobs wrote, and that could only be learned from the people who lived there.

As a solution, Jacobs recommended "administrative districts," to be run by a "district administrator" which would represent the primary, basic subdivision within city agencies. Her recommendations were taken up in the 1963 New York City Charter, adopted during Wagner's third term as Mayor. The Charter extended the neighborhood-governance concept to the other boroughs, establishing "Community Planning Boards" with advisory powers throughout the city. These boards eventually became known simply as "Community boards." Transactional de Blasio who cannot get his rezoning plan passed the city's Community Planning Boards is simply now going to ignore them and pass his plan with his puppet city council.*Groups Promise Civil Disobedience if Mayor's Zoning PlanIsn't Changed (DNAINFO)

Meet The New Power Broker Glenwoods' Litwin Same As the Old Power Broker Moses

The fact that the mayor's plan is a give-a-way for developers which will increase gentrification displacement is of no concern to the council, who will be threaten with primaries by interlocking-directories of developers and lobbyists (Uber lobbyists won after they threaten members with primaries) if they don't vote for the plan. The council is decentralized but unlike the planning boards was elected with centralized interlocking-directories of lobbyists and campaign contributors that was exposed at the Silver corruption trial. * Robert Moses vs. Jane Jacobs - WNYC * Jane Jacobs vs Robert Moses: Urban Fight of the Century - YouTube

No Shock the NYT Support de Blasio Protecting Developers While Dismissing Minorities Fighting for Their Communities

As the NYT's Editorial Claims the Mayor Has Made A Persuasive Case But Does Not State What the Persuasive Case is or Talk About the 421-a Program Which is the Driver of the Gentrification That Those Fighting Rezoning Fear. If the NYT's Editorial Cannot Analyse the Effects of the 421-a Program When the State's Two Top Leaders are On Trial for Accepting Millions From the Developers Pushing That Program They Never Will Until the Paper Changes Ownership or Goes Out of Business

Affordable Housing vs. Gentrification (NYT Ed) New Yorkers are finally getting their chance to say what they think of Mayor de Blasio’s plan.* New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has made a persuasive case for using zoning changes that allow more dense development to create affordable housing, but his challenge remains getting New Yorkers to believe in his vision.

In Every Case Gentrification in the Long Run Has Created Segregation Not Diverse Neighborhoods

NY Times: de Blasio has a plan that he says will preserve economically diverse neighborhoods in New York City, significantly and permanently increase the affordable-housing supply and create a more attractive streetscape. In community meetings across the city, New Yorkers are finally having their chance to say whether they agree with him. The winds of “no” are blowing strong.

The Mayor and Council has Not A Clue How to Solve the City's Affordable Housing Crisis As They Spin Failed Plans

De Blasio’s infinitely-bedeviled affordable-housing hopes (NYDN Ed) When it comes to Mayor de Blasio’s latest housing plan, one City Council member says, “The devil’s in the details.” Wrong, says another, “The devil’s in plain sight.” They’re both right — as last week’s hearings on the plan made painfully clear. Critics say the mayor’s proposed rules to promote “affordable housing” (and fix practically every other problem under the sun) fall short. Well, yeah: His promises are sky-high. Plus, his ideas for delivering are so Rube-Goldberg complex that everyone sees things to gripe about. And de Blasio’s “inequality” mantra only fuels the discontent. But, oy, the details. The scheme features a mind-numbing range of variables, from the percentage of subsidized apartments to tenants’ income levels and even the neighborhood’s median earnings. And Team de Blasio isn’t just trying to get “affordable housing” built. It also aims for greater “economic diversity” in neighborhoods — even as it (rightly) argues that middle-income folks, as well as the poor, can have trouble paying market-rate rents in some areas. Never mind that, say some advocates, who want builders to offer more units and bigger subsidies for poorer tenants. Some even warn that de Blasio’s plan will speed gentrification and push up rents elsewhere in neighborhoods — a nutty flip on the idea of progress. The Not-In-My-Back-Yard crowd also hisses at the plan. And construction unions see a chance to demand higher wages. But builders eye the bottom line: If they can’t make a decent profit, they won’t build. “We are pushing as far as we can,” says de Blasio’s Housing Preservation and Development commissioner, Vicki Been. “If we push too far, we get zero housing.” Decades of city “affordable housing” efforts — with tools from rent regulation to Section 8 vouchers to tax breaks for developers — haven’t made a dent in the “crisis.” Instead, celebrities and top earners make headlines hoarding subsidized units, insiders cut the line for the relatively few “affordable” units and the squeeze continues for everyone else. De Blasio’s plan for 80,000 new subsidized units will yield the same result — assuming he can figure out how to get it passed. * New York City workers and police officers persuaded more than 100 homeless people to get off the street overnight into Sunday as the temperature plummeted below zero, but at least one man talked police into letting him stay, the Post writes: * Unions and activists are starting to lobby New York City Council members on alternative zoning proposals that promote local hiring and more safe work zones and call for more affordable units in areas that are up-zoned: http://goo.gl/sGgtG8

The Mayor's Plan Will Cost Billions and Will Not Build Enough Affordable Housing

Mayor de Blasio madetwo big self-harming choices when retailing his grand housing plan (NYDN) "Twelve years ago you would have thrown a ticker tape parade” for a mayor who planned to build affordable housing across the city, Councilman David Greenfield cracked while facing fury against Mayor de Blasio’s plan to do just that. Yet, like many others who spoke that long day — some tearfully describing appalling housing conditions and costs — the same advocates now urge the Council to reject the mayor’s proposal unless they see fundamental alterations. Speaker after speaker condemned de Blasio’s plan as a mortal threat to the city’s poor. How was it that Mayor de Blasio’s head-on Robin Hood assault on New York’s real estate fat cats bombed with the very progressives who ought to champion the most aggressive affordable housing mandate in the country?

If the Council Pass the Mayor's New Housing Bill They Will Take Direct Responsibility for the Gentrification Throwing People Out of Their Homes

It’s impossible to overlook the self-harming choices de Blasio made in retailing his grand plan, when two of his most consistent political instincts served him poorly. One is to come up to the plate swinging for the bleachers, proposing citywide plans of history-making sweep. That’s what he did with the Housing New York vision unveiled in the first months of his term — promising to build and preserve 200,000 affordable apartments over 10 years via supersizing currently low-rise neighborhoods. The other is to insist on exhaustive consultation with affected communities — opening up the entirely reasonable expectation that hours of feedback collected at late-night meetings actually would be reflected in results.

The Mayor's Housing Plan Will Not Stop Gentrification

In fact, in East New York , that’s not how it’s actually going to work at all. The city’s analysis showed that all the housing developed there initially would have to be taxpayer-subsidized, because the neighborhood was so poor no developer could profit from building market-rate housing there. But with East New York serving as de Blasio’s inaptly chosen testing ground , activist groups rallied residents to oppose his plan as a Trojan horse for developers set on gentrifying the scrappy area. The same horror movie trailer unspooled in other low-income areas targeted by the mayor for development: Local residents shuddered that newcomers would come in to shove them aside, with even the supposedly affordable rents far beyond their meager budgets. Seeking to salvage a deal with the City Council, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, the savvy steamroller leading the housing effort, has now hinted that a compromise could be had, perhaps paying for more apartments for the poorest by raising rents on other affordable apartments. But there’s no such thing as free housing . Ultimately there are only two ways for the critics and their allies on the Council to get what they want.One is to bank on stepped-up luxury development, with rents so high they yield cash to spare to house the poor — furthering the very gentrification activists fear. Or more likely: de Blasio dips into his $8 billion affordable housing piggybank, committing to pay dearly to buy down rents to a level the poor can actually afford, and diverting funds that could have otherwise built additional affordable apartments.

Gentification Gives the Chance for A Jailed Developer (anti-trust) to Kill A Community Garden

Brooklyn DeveloperAllegedly Harassing Community Gardeners To Force Them Out (Gothamist) Real estate developers trying to claim a property occupied by a community garden in ProspectLeffertsGardens have subpoenaed garden supporters in connection with a sidewalk slip-and-fall case, which the gardeners' lawyer says is part of a legal "pattern of harassment." On one side is the company Housing Urban Development LLC, run by brothers Joseph and Michael Makhani. On the other is the volunteers for the MapleStreetGarden and Paula Segal, an attorney and director of the open-space advocacy group 596 Acres. Segal said that the subpoenas targeted people who were quoted blasting the brothers in the news, and as they were originally written, asked for all sorts of irrelevant information in an effort to intimidate them. "They subpoenaed every single person who has spoken publicly about Housing Urban Development’s property claims," she said. "The subpoenas were over-broad, and asked inappropriate questions about their voluntary associations with their neighbors." For some background, the Makhani brothers claim to have purchased the lot at 237 Maple St. for $5,000 from nephews of the deceased owners back in 2003. The house that once occupied the lot was abandoned after its owners' deaths, and burned down in 1997. The lot accumulated junk for 15 years until neighbors banded together to clean it up and turn it into a community garden—after they say a worker at the Makhanis' LLC refused to discuss the property.Late last summer, after the gardeners had put two years of work into transforming the property, the Makhanis showed up demanding the garden be removed. The next morning, a crew set to ripping out a vegetable bed, but were stopped by cops when the Makhanis couldn't produce satisfactory ownership paperwork. Since then, the realtors and developers have been in court fighting over the validity of the Makhanis' deed and the gardeners' right to stay. In the meantime, the Makhanis filed permits to build a five-story, 17-apartment building on the site. The Makhani brothers served three months in federal prison in 1999 and paid $20,000 in fines each for anti-trust violations, and in Michael Makhani's case, for fraud, according to a U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman. The New York Times reported that convictions were for their roles in a scheme involving foreclosed properties in Queens, though the spokeswoman couldn't confirm that. In late 2008, the Times wrote, three companies Joseph Makhani was a principal in, including one under fire for alleged predatory lending, pleaded guilty to filing false deeds in Queens and were fined $5,000.

On How the Developers Suck the Power Out of the NeighborhoodsHamill: New Yorkers Have Lost A Sense of Themselves As People in Control of Their Lives in This City

TONY GUIDA: Sure. What a lesson. I want to talk a recent piece, very recent piece, in The National Geographic about this city. I mean there's many people talk of you Pete as the poet of New York City. The bard of this city. No one sings the song of New York better than Pete Hamill and so here in the National Geographic you're reflecting on the city and I was a bit taken aback. You said, my beloved New York is in a bad way. How do you mean that?

PETE HAMILL: I mean that certain things as epitomized by the super tall buildings that are going up everywhere erasing the sky and throwing shadows into our lives. Are more a triumph of money then of architecture. They’re more building refugees for people who don't want to live here. I don't get a sense walking past some of those buildings, there’s a few right here in Tribeca where I live that there are people living in these buildings who are not going to join the Parent Teachers Association. Who are not particularly interested in finding out the name of the guy that sells the newspaper or the butchers last name or the kinds of things that came from neighborhoods because the neighborhood was the kind of series of connected hamlets that made New York so rich particularly if you were a reporter. You know you could go from one block to another and it was a different world and the last two or three years with the explosion of these buildings, the super talls, I just felt that they were losing a sense of themselves as people in control of their lives in this city. That it was being determined by some other standard but not the standard that had shaped me and a whole lot of other people who grew up here.

TONY GUIDA: Your point about it's money and it's not community.

PETE HAMILL: Yeah. That's exactly the point. Yeah.

Affordable Housing Plan Melt Down

And City Council Wants More Affordable and Make Sure Any Plan Prevents Gentrification

SPIN SELLING SENIOR HOUSING FOR A COMPLEX HOUSING PROBLEM

The de Blasio administration defended its Zoning for Quality and Affordability proposal at a New York City Council hearing by saying it would pave the way for the creation of senior housing across the city and mixed-income residences near transit: (City and State)

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration offers defense of itsaffordable-housing strategy (WSJ) * Lapsed 421-a controversy resurfaces with unprompted email (PoliticoNY) On Monday afternoon, the lead labor negotiator for a now-expired development tax break known as 421-a put out an unusually timed statement. "After exhaustive, good-faith conversations had over the last seven months, it is clear that 421-a as we know it is dead and will not be revived," Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, said in an email. "After careful consideration, we believe it is very clear that absent a prevailing wage requirement, the 421-a tax abatement program should not be renewed under any circumstances. We need a new, comprehensive approach that builds needed affordable housing citywide, while also offering construction workers good middle-class wages and benefits." LaBarbera was tasked by Gov. Andrew Cuomo with negotiating a deal on 421-a, a lucrative property tax exemption, with the Real Estate Board of New York when the program was up for renewal last year.

The talks fell apart last month and the program expired. It was not clear what prompted the email on Monday, and the statement seemed to echo LaBarbera's comments when the tax exemption expired in mid-January. Several sources close to the previous 421-a negotiations, who would only speak on background, said LaBarbera may have been pushing back against the possibility that State Senate Republicans would craft 421-a legislation that excludes a prevailing wage requirement — an idea that has been floated in recent weeks. The statement also came shortly before the New York City Council prepares for a contentious hearing on Mayor Bill de Blasio's zoning proposal.* A key housing tax break is “dead and will not be revived,” the head of the building trades union, Gary LaBarbera, said in a statement. He called for a brand new program to be established in the place of the expired 421-a program. * New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration defended its affordable housing strategy ahead of two City Council hearings on proposed zoning changes, which are widely expected to pass the Council, the Journal reports: * The Daily News writes that the New York City Council Progressive Caucus threatens to curtail de Blasio’s affordable housing goals by demanding more than what is economically feasible and New Yorkers can’t afford “this wild-eyed purist political posturing:”* Council’s erroneous zones on affordable housing (NYDN) The Council’s 19-member Progressive Caucus, which includes Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, is about to test those laws of economics by pushing regulations requiring buildings to lease more apartments for less money than de Blasio seeks. By overreaching, they threaten to curtail de Blasio’s affordable housing goals, which are already threatened by the death of a tax break because the Legislature and Gov. Cuomo heedlessly intervened to boost wages for construction workers. Analyses shared by City Hall offer no grounds to doubt that the plan before the Council pushes affordable housing mandates as far as dollars allow. Although de Blasio offers billions to subsidize lower rents, the Council progressives say he must write promises into law. They’re playing with dynamite. Demand too much and projects become financially infeasible. Then will come lawsuits to end the affordable housing mandates outright. Struggling to pay rent, New Yorkers in crying need of housing can’t afford this wild-eyed purist political posturing.* Year of the Sheep: at groundbreaking for new tower, de Blasio and supporters hail "100% affordable housing," avoid pesky details about cost (AYR)* De Blasio Administration Pushes Plan to TradeParking Spots for Senior Housing (NYO)

EAST HARLEM PLANS ITS OWN REZONING -- Preempting City Plan -- Gotham Gazette's Maggie Calmes: "The East Harlem Neighborhood Plan is the product of participation by over 1,300 East Harlem residents in seven community visioning workshops, hundreds of community surveys, and eight meetings of Community Board 11 over the course of 10 months. The planning process began last year, after de Blasio highlighted zoning and affordable housing in his State of the City address and named East Harlem as one of the first group of neighborhoods the city plans to upzone for higher density, more affordable housing, and neighborhood improvements.

"The plan, due out at the end of this week, is meant to preempt and influence the proposals included in de Blasio's East Harlem neighborhood plan, which will go through a land use review process. Stakeholders in East Harlem have sought to get out ahead of a process that has vexed community members in other parts of the city the administration is targeting, most notably Brooklyn's East New York, which is the first neighborhood plan moving forward. Mark-Viverito, whose district includes all of East Harlem, said at a January 27 community planning forum, "I represent the community, so my decision is that if there's an interest in rezoning my neighborhood, my interest is to get my community to provide input, so I decided to be proactive instead of reactive." Along with project partner and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Mark-Viverito has thrown her significant political clout behind the project, which received considerable funding through the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Neighborhoods First Fund for Community Based Planning."http://bit.ly/1mE9kZu

Knocking Down Community Gardens for Affordable Housing

De Blasio to raze gardens for affordable housing (NYDN) In his zeal to produce more affordable housing as quickly as possible, Mayor de Blasio will raze nine neighborhood community gardens in Harlem and Brooklyn that occupy city-owned land and replace them with 800 new low- and moderate-income units. Those gardens sprang up on vacant city lots decades ago. Many became popular local oases of flowers, trees and vegetable patches. But during the Bloomberg and Giuliani eras, many were threatened with eviction to make way for new market-rate housing.*

How the Mayor’s Zoning Plan Vote to Bypass Community Opposition Will Pass the Council Thanks to Glenwood

Today True News continues it series on exposing the Democracy Killing Interlocking-Directorates of Campaign Contributors and Lobbyists that run NY’s Government and elections. In Part III as the mayor tries to find the votes to override the 5 borough community boards that have rejected his rezoning plan; we look at real estate control of the city council. Over have of the council received help from Glenwood’s Job for NY PAC. Another quarter goes help from their local democratic party who got donations from Glenwood. It is quite ironic that a council and mayor who pride themselves as being progressive is counting on using what the man who their movement was named was trying to eliminate, interlocking-directorates of control, to pass a rezoning that has strong opposition. One of President Theodore Roosevelt's first notable acts as president was to deliver a 20,000-word address to Congress asking it to curb the power of large corporations (called "trusts"). During the real Progressive Era Roosevelt intervened in the economy, breaking up corporate monopolies. Roosevelt became know as the Trust-Buster when he went after corporate Interlocking-directorate which refers to the practice of members of a corporate board of directors serving on the boards of multiple corporations. Today Interlocking-directorates also refer to the monopolist’s control of campaign donors and lobbyists have over government and campaigns. In looking at the control Glenwood and the other Jobs for NY PAC contributors have over the council you to into account not only the 2013 funding but also the promises of 2017 funding or threats of running against any councilmember that votes against the mayor’s zoning plan. In Part I of its Interlocking-Directorates True News reported how lobbyists and campaign contributors were at the center of both the Silver and Skelos corruption. In Part II of Interlocking-Directorates True News reported how lobbyists Berlin Rosen controlled the local elected official and the developers who closed down the Brooklyn Heights Business Library. Coming Soon Part IV the Interlocking-Directorates of the UFT and Their Lobbyists Control Over the City Council.

The Interlocking-Directorates or Real Estate and Lobbyist That Control the Progressive City Council

1. Glenwood contributed $587,000 to the real estate PAC Jobs for New York. 2. Other Real Estate REBNY members contributed another $7 Million to Jobs for New York, 3. Lobbyists Campaign Consultant Evan Stavisky’s Parkside Group Ran the Jobs for New York PAC for the REBNY Developers and Real Estate Barons. 4. Glenwood Contributed $1,146,000 to the State Senate GOP Committee and $570,000 to the GOP Senate Housekeeper Account (millions more in other Real Estate PACs like Neighborhood Preservation, Real Estate Board PAC to keep the senate in the hands of Skelos’ GOP. 5. Glenwood Contributed Thousands to Senator Jeff Klein Who Head the IDC (6) Democrats Who Support and Vote With the Senate GOP Leadership. 7. Glenwood Donated Over $100,000 to Senator Gianaris (8) Who Runs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee... 9. Glenwood Has Contributed $350,000 to Senator Michael Gianaris DSCC. 10. Parkside is the Campaign Consultant the Gianaris Keeps Hiring At Over $2 Million an Election to Run the DSCC despite the Fact that Parkside Has Failed to Deliver a Majority to the Democratic Leaders. 11. Parkside is Senator Gianaris Campaign Consultant. 12. Glenwood Contributed Tens of Thousands to Tony Avella the Senate Ethics Chair. 13. Parkside is Avella Campaign Consultant 14... Glenwood Donated Tens of Thousands to Toby Stavisky’s Parkside Evan’s Mom. 15. Evan Works as a Campaign Consultant for His Mom. 16. Glenwood Donated Tens of Thousands to the Queens Democratic Party. 17. Parkside is the Campaign Consultant for the Queens Democratic Party. 18. Parkside worked for Dromm, Van Bramer, Koslowitz, Crowley, and Lancman as Campaign Consultants. 19. Glenwood Donated $1,089,000 to the Cuomo Campaign and Another and Another Half Million to the Committee to Save NY. 20. Glenwood Donated Over $100,000 to Both Comptroller DiNapoli AG Schneiderman * True News Investigation of Shadow Government Interlocking-DirectoratesPart III: Control the City Council by Real Estat

The Push to Buy Support for de Blasio's Zoning Plan

Facing opposition to its sweeping zoning proposals, the de Blasio administration is slated to unveil a series of economic development initiatives for East New York, the first neighborhood expected to fall under the framework, Sarina Trangle reports: * After initially withholding support for MandatoryInclusionary Housing, the New York State Association for Affordable Housing is now getting behind the key de Blasio zoning proposal even without getting details the group wanted:

The de Blasio administration’s zoning proposals garnered some support, but elected officials criticized the administration for trying to pass citywide zoning templates and later modify them for specific neighborhoods, as opposed to taking a local approach from the beginning: (C&amp;S) * Discussions to extend the 421-a tax abatement to encourage affordable housing are “dead” according to sources, and the Real Estate Board of New York is unhappy with the direction of negotiations with the construction workers union, the Gotham Gazette reports: * As NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s signature affordable housing initiative is being hotly debated, supporters and opponents of key zoning changes the mayor wants packed a City Planning Commission hearing to sound off about the proposals they say will remake the city. * Facing the biggest public forum yet on their affordable housing strategy, de Blasio administration officials defended the plan, saying it is a “game changer.”

Protestors slam de Blasio over downtown rezoning proposal (NYDN) The people’s mayor is quickly losing the support of the people on the Lower East Side. That was the message delivered to Mayor de Blasio at GracieMansion on Wednesday by a group of more than 100 angry, sign-wielding people protesting proposed neighborhood rezoning. The predominately Asian, Latino and black demonstrators organized by the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side carried signs that read “No more poor doors!” and “Mayor, we elected you!” “Many of us voted for you because you said you would end the tale of two cities! You said you would fight for working families, but what happened?!” protestor David Tieu shouted as he stood in the bed of a pickup truck. “You are promoting inequality! You are destroying our communities! You are destroying our city!” he added as his fellow protesters cheered. “Friends I know have had to move because they can no longer afford the rising rents,” she said. Many tenants in rent-stabilized apartments said their landlords are trying to evict them so they can rent out the units at market rates. Chinatown resident Yaqin Li, 37, a married mother of two, said the company that owns her building is refusing to grant new leases to those living in rent-stabilized apartments — including her family.

Borough PresidentsTear Into de Blasio Housing Plan (NYO) Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and Queens Borough President Melinda Katz called on the City Planning Commission to utterly reject Mayor Bill de Blasio’s affordable housing proposals—while Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer criticized much of the plan even as she supported some parts of it. Appearing before the CPC at the Museum of the American Indian auditorium in lower Manhattan, Mr. Diaz and Ms. Katz attacked what they perceived as the mayor’s boilerplate plan to rezone the entire city, and favored instead what they both called a “neighborhood by neighborhood” approach, even though they expressed sympathy with the mayor’s aim of building and maintaining 200,000 affordable apartments. Mr. Diaz accused the administration of attempting to rush its plan through the community boards and borough boards that make up the first steps of the city’s rezoning process, arguing that the administration had given them just two months to digest the 500 page proposals. *